A Libyan Scholar Proves the Arabic Origins of the Ancient Egyptian Language
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Alexandria—
The BA Calligraphy Center organized on Sunday, 20 May 2007, a seminar entitled "A Proof on the Arabic Origins of the Ancient Egyptian Language". Dr. Ali Fahmi Khushaim, Head of the Academy of Arabic Language, in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, spoke in the seminar, chaired by Dr. Ahmed El-Sawy, Professor, Faculty of Archeology, Cairo University.
The seminar was a discussion of Dr. Khushaim 's new book "Proof of the Arabic Origins of the Ancient Egyptian Language", which is the fruit of 15 years of research to prove that the ancient Egyptian language is one of the forms of the Arabic language spoken in the Arabian Peninsula, similar to the Aramaic and the ancient Libyan languages.
At the outset of the seminar, Dr. Khushaim referred to the historical relations between Alexandria and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. He stated that the methodology of his research is based on the fact that our nation shares the same heritage and speaks the same language, which he called "Al-Orobiya" in Mesopotamia, the Peninsula, the Levant, the Nile Valley, and North Africa. Dialects varied between Babylonian, Sumerian, Canaanite, Egyptian, the ancient Libyan languages, and Arabic. He added that we all speak the same Arabic language, founded in the Arabian Peninsula, with different dialects Iraqi, Gulf, Sudanese, Tunisian, or Mauritanian. It is not practical to say that a certain dialect constitutes a special identity, nationality, or any other allegations.
Khushaim spoke about his new book and explained the close relation between the language of the ancient inhabitants of the Nile Valley and the Arabic language. He added that there were two schools that analyzed and interpreted the ancient Egyptian language, the German, English and French. The latter wanted-for occupational reasons—to isolate Egypt from its surroundings. They alleged that the Pharaoh’s civilization flourished away from its neighborhood. He also referred to the fact that all those who analyzed the ancient Egyptian language to-date do not have good command of the Arabic language. He stressed the importance of following an Arabic methodology in the analysis and study of the close relationship between the civilization of the Nile Valley and its neighborhoods.
Dr. Khushaim reviewed some ancient Egyptian terms mentioning its Arabic roots, such as Horus, which is derived from Hōr in Arabic, meaning falcon, from which the word Horreya (freedom) was derived. The same applies to other ancient Egyptian names, such as Rameses and Nefertiti.
It is worth mentioning that Dr. Ali Fahmy Khushaim was born in Misratah, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, in 1936. He obtained his Bachelor degree in Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Libyan University, Benghazi, in 1962. He received his masters in Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Ein Shams University, in 1966, and his doctorate in Philosophy, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Durham University, England, in 1971. Dr. Khushaim is the Secretary-General of the Arabic Language Academy in Libya since 1994 to-date. He was elected a member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo, in 2003.